A CORK TD who was diagnosed with bowel cancer during the general election campaign has said that he never considered stepping back from politics.
Cork North Central representative Thomas Gould, 56, underwent an emergency operation in September of last year.
He told the Opinion Line with PJ Coogan on Cork’s 96FM that he had to “get on with life” following his sudden and shocking diagnosis, asking: “what else was I going to do?”
He said: “I’m really proud to be a TD for Cork North Central. And for me being able to go to work, being able to come in here and do interviews, being in the Dail this week speaking.
“What was I going to do, go to bed and feel sorry for myself? I actually love my job.”
Deputy Gould is still undergoing chemotherapy.
He stresses that that the reality of life is that many cancer patients “go to school, go to college every day, raise families” while on chemo, radium or a different type of cancer treatment.
In hindsight, Gould realises that he was suffering from exhaustion for about 18 months before he was diagnosed.
He admitted: “I couldn’t figure out what it was. Outside of that, I had very few other issues. I went for tests and they thought I was anaemic and then they put me on iron tablets thinking my iron counts were low.
“I went for different tests over different months. And then what happened was I went for a test in September and I went out to see the consultant to get the results. I never brought my wife with me or my sisters. I had no inclination that was what I was facing.
“So I met Dr Shane Killeen on a Friday and he says, ‘You’re coming in next Wednesday to (be) operated on.’ I was shocked.
“He said if he had a theatre he would have operated on the Friday.
The closest one he could get was on the Wednesday.
“It was an emergency operation and I had to go because I had a tumour in my bowel and it needed to be got out. It was so sudden. I hadn’t thought I was that sick.”
Deputy Gould had the surgery the following Wednesday in the Mercy Hospital in Cork city.
He explained: “I had the tumour removed and it went well. They got the tumour, they got all the cancer around it. They sent parts off then to be analysed.
“A week or so later, I got back the results to say that they had all the cancer in the bowel, but there seemed to be some in the lymph nodes. And then I had to go Derek Power who is a a consultant in cancer.
“And Derek said Shane got all the cancer, but to be doubly sure and be precautionary I should start chemo when I got over the effects of the operation.”
